A Study On Simultaneous Interpreting Teaching From The Perspective Of Sociocultural Theory

Sociocultural theory is widely accepted in second language acquisition, however, there is no research of its application in simultaneous interpreting teaching. Since interpreting is related to second language acquisition, the author believes that a combination of sociocultural theory and the teaching mode of simultaneous interpreting is worth studying.This thesis adopts descriptive and comparative methods combined with a questionnaire to investigate the effectiveness of sociocultural theory application in simultaneous interpreting course. The author describes four typical classes in order to present its application in pedagogy. A comparative analysis of the performance of two groups is carried out to prove the influence of sociocultural theory on students. The questionnaire is designed to collect feedback towards the simultaneous interpreting course and students’ after-class learning performance. Through an overall analysis, the author states that the application of sociocultural theory in simultaneous interpreting teaching has positive effect on students, especially those with higher scores. Moreover, the author concludes the shortages in after-class learning and puts forward that an emphasis on practice and assessment after class is necessary when designing simultaneous interpreting course. Combining theoretical and empirical studies, this paper demonstrates the advantages of the application of sociocultural theory to simultaneous interpreting teaching and the deficiencies in practice, and promotes detailed and targeted suggestions for simultaneous interpreting teaching and learning.